Young Dark Emu

A Truer History

As European explorers and settlers moved across Australia in search of land to claim, they made records and kept diaires, and drew and painted what they saw. These eyewitness accounts tell us how Aboriginal people lived and asks you to consider these 'inconvenient truths' - a different view of how Australia was before the British arrived in 1788.

Bruce Pascoe has collected a swathe of literary awards for Dark Emu and now he has brought together the research and compelling first person accounts in a book for younger readers.

Using the accounts of early European explorers, colonists and farmers, Bruce compellingly argues for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer label for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians. He allows the rteader to see Australia as it was before Europeans arrived - a land of culivated farming areas, productive fisheries, permanent homes, and an understanding of the enviroment and its natural resources that supported thriving villages across the continent.

Bruce Pascoe is a writer of Tasmanian, Bunurong and Yuin descent. He has worked as a teacher, farmer, fisherman, barman, fencing contractor, lecturuer, Aboriginal language researcher, archaeological site worker and editor. Bruce has written many award-winning books for adults and children. His works of fiction for children include the CBCA shortlisted Mrs Whitlam, Seahorse and the Prime Minister's Literary YA Award-winning Fog a Dox. In 2018, Bruce was the recipient of the Australia Council for the Arts prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature.

Young Dark Emu
Magabala Books
Author: Bruce Pascoe
RRP: $24.99